LEWIS Hamilton won the Singapore Grand Prix in dominant fashion to increase his championship lead over Sebastian Vettel to 40 points and the German was less than impressed with his team's approach to the race.

Herald Sun
September 16, 2018 11:34PM

Last updated September 17, 2018 7:29AM AEST

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LEWIS Hamilton won the Singapore Grand Prix in dominant fashion to increase his Formula One championship lead over Sebastian Vettel to 40 points and the German was less than impressed with his team's approach to the race.

Hamilton made a clean start and was largely untroubled as he beat Red Bull driver Max Verstappen by nine seconds, with Vettel much further back in third.

Early on it looked as though Ferrari had struck gold opting to pit Vettel first to go on the ultrasofts in a bid to get him out ahead of Hamilton. But it was an ill-judged move as he rejoined behind the slower Force India of Perez.

Hamilton responded immediately and pitted on the next lap, but he crucially opted for the soft compound that had been predicted to last until the end.

Vettel’s frustration increased as Hamilton rejoined in front and then boiled over as Verstappen jumped him when he too pitted for softs.

Sebastian Vettel was not impressed with Ferrari's stategy

There’s “no chance” of winning, Vettel moaned over team radio. “We were too late again,” he bawled. “These tyres will not make it to the end.”

After the race, Vettel was equally unimpressed with his team.

“We tried to be aggressive in the beginning, and it didn’t work out… the way we raced we didn’t have a chance,” Vettel said.

“I said before the weekend we can only beat ourselves, and we didn’t get everything out of our package.

“The first stint was cruising, but overall you will see the gap says we were not fast enough and we need to understand why.

“It’s largely down to how we decided to race, which tyres etc.”

Vettel’s championship bid crumbled when he crashed in Singapore from pole last year and then went on to lose the title by 46 points to Hamilton.

It is looking increasingly like a repeat scenario for the Ferrari driver, who now has just six races left to catch Hamilton as they both bid for a fifth F1 title.

The result was Hamilton’s seventh win of the season and 69th of his F1 career.

“I’m spent that was a tough race.,” he said afterwards. “The team has never given up belief. That was long, it felt like the longest race of my life I’m glad it’s over. What a day, what a weekend. I’m blessed.

Lewis Hamilton wins the Singapore Grand Prix

“I think I was unlucky with the traffic, it’s hard to follow when these guys are moving around. They wouldn’t let me by so it got close, my heart was in my mouth for a bit. I got passed them and put my foot down.

“They put up a good fight I don’t know where their pace went. I’m just grateful for everyone’ hard work.”

Valtteri Bottas guided his Mercedes to fourth place, Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari came home fifth and Daniel Ricciardo was sixth in the second Red Bull.

“I would have liked to work harder – or fought for more,” Ricciardo said afterwards.

“Streets circuits, qualifying is so important. I had good pace to catch Kimi and Valtteri but couldn’t get there. I hoped for a better race but that is the race we expected.

“I was trying to play with Kimi a little bit, I couldn’t do anything. I was trying, sitting behind there was not much to do.

“I think we need everything to fall into place, we seem to be struggling a lot this year.”